Halloween

What a miracle, I am finally making an entry into our blog.  It has been months since I have written, its bad enough that I don't even write very often.  We have been experiencing a lot of changes in our life, mainly because of our little Lynlee.

The question is how far back do I go?  Well I just saw what Josh wrote a couple of weeks ago, so I need to share what has happened most recently.

I will back up to Halloween, it fell on a Wednesday this year in the middle of the school week.  I had to work until about four and Josh was up doing a lab until about five this made it so the evening was a little rush for us.  I had to come home and get me and Lynlee ready.  She was a bag of money (I made it) I was a southern bell and Josh was a Texas Ranger.  It was a very fun family costume.  We first went to Grandma Ellison's house to eat homemade soups.  We then took pictures with Nathan and Sharlyn's family.  We then went with Caleb, Dani and Ady to the nursing home that Dani works at so the girls could trick or treat.  Ady was walking around on her own and Lynlee would hold onto our fingers and walk around going from person to person.  So to say the least Lynlee was able to get mom and dad a lot of candy since we have not allowed her to eat any sweets yet.  The girls later on were sitting next to each other, Lynlee kept petting Ady's Lion main and then the girls started to give each other kisses.  I was thought it was very funny and cute.  We then went to the Heder's and ate pizza and hung out.  The girls did a good job playing and having fun.

Lynlee's new thing is that she is a major social butterfly.  In the afternoon at daycare she is given her bottle and she keeps choosing to not drink very much and leave it on the floor to go play.  I guess food has lost the appeal that it used to have.  She used to eat with out stopping and now she looses interest at times.  I don't know if it is due to her teething or if she is not growing as much right now.  We love that little girl so much and she makes us so happy.

Lynlee is Growing Up

So much has happened since I last wrote. We successfully moved out of our condo, and are renting it out to an Arabic couple. We are comfortable in my parents basement and have finally gotten most of our stuff organized. We have a lot of our stuff in a storage unit, but still had to find space for all our necessities here. It all worked out quite well. We mainly live in the long, rectangular room that takes up half of the basement.  On the end of the room by the fireplace is my office space in one corner, and just behind me in the other corner are my drums. Halfway through the room is our bed, against the wall, and beyond that is the large bar area that acts as sort of a kitchen. Off of that room is a door to the storage room with half of it set up as a closet for our clothes and our own storage items. Lynlee's room is a smaller room just off of the kitchen, with both a door into the kitchen and a door out by the stairs on the other side of the basement. We use them both in the day to get to the stairs faster from that side of the basement. So, now that you have the whole explanation I will have to add in a few pictures with I put this into a book.

Lynlee is now a little less than 9 months old. She has been doing well in daycare and has made some little friends she plays with there. Since starting daycare she has learned to babble, and make all sorts of fun sounds and noises, including whining. She especially whines whenever anyone else has food or a bottle and she doesn't. I taught her to clap without even realizing what I was doing. I would take her by the elbows and make her palms clap together. I only did it a few times, but before we knew it she was clapping all on her own. At daycare, whenever the ladies there would say "yay!" she would start clapping. It's so cute.

She interacts well with other babies and loves to be social. When Cambria drops her off, she gives Cambria a hug by resting her head on her shoulder for a few seconds then immediately wants to be put down to go play. She loves coming home and seeing mom and dad. When I walk in the door, she looks around wondering what the sound is, and when I come into sight her mouth opens into a wide open mouthed smile, and her eyes go wide and brighten up. Then I usually get a big grin out of her and a yell or two as she flails her arms around wanting to come see me. It's so cute and it makes my day. She's growing up so fast.

She actually just crawled a few days ago. It was only for about two feet but it was more than her usual short army crawling. She loves laughing, and her laughs are getting cuter and cuter every day. I am growing out a short beard for Halloween and she laughs when I rub it across her belly. She laughs really hard when I pin her arms out to the sides of her and lightly bite her arm a few times while moving toward her shoulder. Tonight we were playing with a stuffed bear that is about her size. I was having the bear attack her belly and neck. She was laughing louder and harder than ever before. We can fly her around above our head while she gets an open mouthed grin and little, short bursts of laughter. And last but not least is moving toward her in little short bursts and she laughs every time we stop. The only thing happier than a babies laugh is when it's your own baby laughing. She brings us more joy than we ever though possible.

She is so cute when she is put to sleep. As we approach her crib, she pushes away from us because she wants to get in it. When we lay her down, she immediately rolls to her left without fail and tries to go onto her belly. We roll her back over and put a blanket over her and under her arms. After kissing her and saying I love you, we'l leave. As we walk out she lets out a few small pouts then is usually quiet for a minute. A few minutes later we will hear her babbling to herself while watching the rotating projected scene on her ceiling. After a few more minutes she is asleep, usually in funny positions all over her crib. We'll go back in, move her, and put the blanket back on her.

Quite often when I get home Lynlee is already asleep. It's hard not to see her in the evenings but I get to spend time with her in the mornings at least. While Cambria is getting ready, she calls my phone and wakes me up. I stumble out of bed and go wake up Lynlee. She plays around on her floor while I find her some clothes. She has a large, 4x5 foot foam floor mat that is also a puzzle. She now likes to take it apart and wave the pieces around in the air. She takes off the foot long border pieces and waves them around, so I grab one and sword fight with her. It's pretty funny because when I stop hitting her sword with mine, she will stop waving hers around. I start sword fighting again and she starts waving hers around again as well. After playing, I change her and get her dressed just in time for mommy to come down to nurse her while I read our morning scriptures out loud. I then take Lynlee with me upstairs to the kitchen and start making our protein shakes and oatmeal for breakfast while Lynlee plays in her saucer. Cambria then takes her upstairs to do her hair while I finish breakfast. When they come down we say morning prayers, then I carry Lynlee out to the car, kiss her good bye, kiss my sweet wife, and they are off for the day. I then get my stuff ready to go. Even though I am not, and maybe never will be a morning person, it has been such a great morning schedule. I get to spend some short but sweet time with my little girl and send her off every morning. 

A few weeks ago I had one day off of school for Fall break and forgot to tell Cambria. When she called to wake me up I told her I would be going back to sleep after I got them  out the door because of Fall break. She told me not to worry about it and to go back to sleep right then. I just couldn't turn down the opportunity to get up and see my little sweetheart, so I got up and we had our normal day's routine, and I still went back to sleep afterward.

It seems like life is happening so fast. Lynlee is growing up in leaps and bounds, the school semester is halfway over already, and the holidays are right around the corner. Halloween is soon, and we are getting our costumes ready. I'm growing out my beard so I can trim it into a sweet handlebar mustache for my Texas ranger costume. I have a cowboy hat, boots, and all the clothes. All I need now is a sweet star shaped badge and a gun and I'll be set. Cambria is going to dress as a cute southern bell that robbed a bank and Lynlee is going to be a sack of money. It's going to be way fun. Well, I hope to write more in here as the holidays come. As usual, life is wonderful.

Life Is Beautiful

Life lately has been a blast.  Lynlee is now about four and a half months old, and is getting more and more fun every day. A couple weeks ago she started doing what we call "the O face". It is pretty much just her holding her jaw down while making an O with her lips. She has become so aware of herself and her surroundings. She is getting close to being able to sit up, and is making the funniest little cooing and squealing noises with her mouth. Cambria has been having a lot of fun with her as well. This last week Lynlee started into daycare on Wednesdays and Fridays. This has been fun for Cambria to be able to feed her on her lunch break. It's also been quite nice for me so I can have more time to get us moved out. We have been in the process of packing our stuff in preparation to move to my parents basement. We will be able to save a lot of money while living there and renting out our condo here in Ogden, and hope to use it for med school applications and travel expenses.

I was taking a physics class this summer semester but it ended up not working out. I tried hard, and the teacher and his style were just not working out for me. I dropped the class and will take it in the fall. It has worked out for the best, as I am able to stay at home with Lynlee all day, and get a lot done in preparation for our move. We will be officially moving this Saturday the 30th. I have also had to prepare my parents basement for us. Lynlee will take over the toy room as her room, so in order for there to be a place for toys, I am finishing under my parents basement stairs for a little playroom there. It has been a long and hard process. I have done drywall and finishing work at the police station we remodeled when I worked in construction with Kyle, but this was a whole new story. With all the corners and angles it was a learning experience that took me a great deal of time to accomplish. I have really enjoyed it though but will be glad ti be done. I have one more coat of paint, then I am finished, and they can get someone to carpet it. I had to frame it so as to fit sheetrock in better, sheetrock, tape the joints and fill them with joint compound, texture the ceiling, place baseboards, and paint. It has taken me more than 60 hours to finish.

Cambria is changing her hours at work slightly. She will be going in at 7:00am and leaving at 3:30. She will be able to spend a bit more time with Lynlee in the evening this way. She is happy to be able to do so since right now she is only able to get a few hours with her before Lynlee goes to sleep. I will be happy to have her home earlier too. I have Lynlee in the daytime, and although I enjoy it, I enjoy the break I get when Cambria comes home to help out.

Life is fun, and we feel very blessed. We have had a very good year so far, and a great time with our little girl. Our love for her grows each day, and we look forward to all the new things she will be learning to do as time passes.

A Whole New World

This entry is taken from two entries that both Josh and I wrote. He put them together the best he could so the timeline would flow well.

This year has started out in whirl wind!  At the end of December I decide that it would be better to go ahead and take nursing state boards (NCLEX) exam.  I was able to listen to an audio study program for the NCLEX and took the boards on January 23rd, 2012.  I then found out on the 25th at 2 a.m. that I had passed the boards, I am now a registered nurse!  It was just in time because my LPN license expired on January 31st.  So I didn't have to pay to get that renewed.

Josh started this school semester on January 2nd.  Weber State University lets out earlier in the summer, so they start earlier in January.  Josh had to make sure that all his books and school supplies were in order before news year eve.  It's hard to want to focus on school when we are still dealing with the holidays.  This semester he is taking two advanced spanish classes, a trigonometry class and a microbiology-Tropical Diseases class.  I am so proud of him because he's doing so well in his classes.  He is studying hard.

Once my test was out of the way and Josh had started school, I had no more worries about our baby girl coming into the world.  The only thing that we weren't decided on was a name for our baby girl.  The due date for our daughter was February 9th.  on February 3rd I started having very irregular contractions, they were very different from what I had been feeling (the Braxton Hicks).

On Saturday the contractions started to happen more often, but still irregular.  That night we went to the temple with Lyn and Larry and it seemed that my contractions were becoming more regular.  That night I went to bed and my contractions were making it hard to fall asleep, I was having to listen to my hypno birthing cd and control my breathing and then I was able to become relaxed enough to fall asleep. I then slept until about 2:30 a.m.  My contractions at that time were coming every 10 minutes. From then on, when Josh had a chance throughout the day, he wrote down the events of the day. From here on is his account of the day since I was a bit preoccupied with birthing our child.

This morning I woke up at 5:30 to a call from someone living in our building who had pipes leaking. I called someone to fix it then went out of the bedroom to find Cambria in the front room. Cambria was out there because she couldn't sleep very well last night. She has been having contractions for a few days which worsened yesterday around noon. Since I woke up her contractions have gotten closer together. I left to go down and get the plumbing thing resolved quickly and when I came back I asked if I should go back to sleep. Obviously I didn't understand how close to labor she really was or that our baby would even be coming today. She thought it would be better if we got our stuff packed. We had sort of planned to get our stuff together at the last minute so Cambria could spend more time laboring at home and less time at the hospital. Cambria's stuff was mostly ready but I had to gather together all of my things. Luckily Cambria had a list prepared for me.

It has been helpful to her during the contractions for her to lean against something with her forearms and for me to apply pressure to her lower back. She said it relieves a lot of her pain.

I got the car packed and off we went to the hospital with Cambria's contractions coming every 3-5 minutes. Their power is off here at the hospital so we took the stairs to the second floor and checked in. Cambria's nurse just took her back without me due to some sort of HIPPA stuff. It's fine with me but you would think the government should allow for the legally and lawfully (as well as eternally) wed husband to accompany his own wife no matter what. Oh well, I understood.

So here I am waiting for them to get back. I'm feeling a bit anxious and my stomach is churning a bit because of it. All in all I am quite excited and looking forward to the next few hours. At least I hope it will be only a few hours. I will write again  later when I have time.

Well Cambria was fully ephased but still only dilated to a one. They had her walk around for a while to see if it could get her going. If not, we would maybe have to go home for a while. Well, after an hour of walking she went to the bathroom and thought her water broke. The nurse came in and tested her and sure enough her water broke and she was dilated to a three. That was enough for them to admit her. They got her a room, #525, and in she came contractions and all. Her contractions quickly became closer and more intense. From my perspective her pain was quite extreme but she handled it very well. They then had her sit on a birthing ball, which is just an exercise ball.

While sitting on the exercise ball, my dad and Monty arrived to help me give Cambria a blessing she had asked me for.  I hadn't given my wife a blessing for a while and it was a very spiritual time for me. In the course of the blessing I said to her that our Heavenly Father knows her perfectly and that He knows our daughter perfectly. He knew what both her and our daughter would need in the next few hours, and above all else to trust in Him. I spoke only a few other things but I myself was very touched as well as comforted by the words that came to my mind for me to speak. I know without a doubt that in such an amazing time, and with the beginning of a new life that our Heavenly Father cares and was watching over us. Later, when I held my little girl, I was able to feel a portion of our the immensity with which our Heavenly Father loves his children.

After we were done with the blessing the nurse then ran a warm bath which Cambria tried that for a while. She said that each position, whether it be on the bed, on the ball, or in the bath, came with it's own different style of pain. I tried as well as I could to support her throughout the whole thing. She wanted her hand massaged so hard to counter the pain I swore I was going to put a hole right through it.

Her pain was quite intense and nearly unbearable so she decided to get an epidural. We had come in wanting to go natural but with an open mind for an epidural so she wouldn't feel disappointed with herself if she decided to get the epidural. She also wanted to be able to be the joyful and happy person that she is sp she decided that she wanted to get the epidural. She had to endure a few more really rough contractions before the anesthesiologist came in and then a few more before the anesthesia set in.

She felt so much better and is now the happy, life-loving woman I'm used to. She is very glad she decided to do it but said she will try natural again with our second child in the future. The last time the nurse checked Cambria is dilated to a six and all is well.

Things progressed very well and soon Cambria was dilated to a 10 and was ready to start pushing. She ended up pushing a few times before the nurse told her she could take a break and wait for the doctor. Dr. Bierer, who would be there soon. We like him and he did great when it came to the delivery. Only a few more pushes passed before our little girl was born at 5:03 p.m. They put her on Cambria's chest and she got to hold our beautiful little girl. It wasn't long before I was handed a pair of scissors and they let me cut the umbilical cord. It's a pretty tough little cord but I was able to get it cut quite easily. I followed the nurses to a little table in the room where they cleaned up, weighed, and measured our baby. She was 20 inches long and weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces. They had me put her first diaper on her before they swaddled her and handed her to me. I took her back over to Cambria who was now all cleaned up as well. Cambria and I shed tears of joy as we looked at our beautiful little girl. We had had it in our minds that a good portion of babies are a bit ugly and they only get cute once they grow up a bit. With this in mind we were quite surprised to see such an amazingly beautiful little girl, with a full head of thick black hair, dark eyes, and olive skin. I guess when both of us were born we had dark hair as well. Once the poofiness around her eyes went down she was even more beautiful.  Every day since she seems to get prettier and prettier. Below are Cambria's comments on naming our little girl.

One very special part of our daughters birth was once I had received the epidural we were able to work on deciding our daughters name. While I was in labor we discreetly decided on a name. We had our few ideas but still needed to play around with a full name. Josh would type out variations of our ideas into his ipad and show them to me. I would comment on them and he would change them accordingly. We finally decided that our daughter would be named Lynlee. We had other names that we really liked but Lynlee has very special meaning.  She is named after a combination of mine and her grandmother's names.  Her middle name, Isabell, is my maternal grandma's name.  Once Lynlee was born we then anonced her name to our moms, who were in the room throughout my labor.  I couldn't say it without getting very choked up.  It is a very special name to me.

Here is what Josh wrote to finish up this entry:


Words cannot express the way I felt that day as a new dad, sitting next to my best friend and eternal companion, while holding our little gift from God. I now understand in a way once unimaginable just how much a parent can love their child. My love for Lynlee has only grown since that day along with an increased love and respect for her mother.

Life has never been more beautiful, my joy never so complete.